We provide the Content on our Sites as free open resources as a public courtesy. By using the Sites, you consent to the collection, storage and disclosure of information as described in this Privacy Policy. If you do not consent to this collection, storage and disclosure, do not use the Sites. We may change the Privacy Policy at any time without prior notice, and your continued use of any of the Sites following any changes is an agreement by you to the change in the Privacy Policy. Any term that is capitalized but is not defined in this Privacy Policy is defined in the Terms of Use.

Cookies

We may place small data files called "cookies" in the browser file of your computer's hard drive. These cookies automatically identify your browser to our server when you interact with the Sites. We use and store the cookies to carry information about usage from page to page through the Sites. We do not use cookies to retrieve personal information about you from your computer. By using our Sites, you consent to the storing and accessing of cookies on your computer or device.

Information Collection

To protect the privacy of children using the internet, and to be compliant with the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act of 1998 (COPPA), it is our policy to refrain from the collection, use or disclosure of personal information from persons under the age of thirteen (13). Our Sites are all directed to people who are at least 13 years old or older.

There are two types of information that we collect: information automatically recorded by our computer server and information you provide to us.

Information Automatically Recorded

For all visitors to the Sites, our servers log your Internet Protocol ("IP") address as well as traffic and website use statistics. An IP address is a number that is automatically assigned to your computer every time you browse the Internet. We also use the data collected according to our agreement with Google to use a web analysis service, called Google Analytics, to provide us with data for how our websites are used. For more information about how Google uses your data when visiting our Sites please go to Google’s privacy policy located at www.google.com/policies/privacy/partners/. By using our Sites, you consent to this collection of data from your computer or device. You may choose to opt out of the Google Analytics service by downloading and installing the add-on for your web browser located at this website: https://tools.google.com/dlpage/gaoptout.

Information You Provide

We collect any additional information that you provide to us about yourself through an email, form, survey, or other written means that includes questions, information, feedback and/or other comments.

Information Use

We may use the information we collect to administer and improve our websites, as aggregate statistics in our public communications or as otherwise disclosed below. Please be assured we will not sell or rent information collected during your visits to the Sites to any third party. However, we may use such information or provide such information to a third party under limited circumstances, as disclosed below.

Information Automatically Recorded

We use general aggregate traffic and website usage statistics derived from automatically collected mechanisms, including cookies, for statistical reporting. For example, we may publicly report usage trends and names of organizations that use the Sites (based on IP addresses), though we will not connect specific activity on the Sites with specific users or user's organizations. We may share such reports with organizations with which we have a business relationship and in our public communications. We use the aggregate traffic and website usage information to help us understand usage and allow us to make improvements to the Sites. In all cases, our use of the information is not personally identifying, however, we may identify the user or the user's organization via the domain name associated with the IP address but we will not reveal how a specific user or user's organization is using the Sites. We use stored IP addresses to help diagnose problems with our servers and otherwise to administer the Sites and to collect aggregate traffic and website usage information. In addition, Google uses the information automatically recorded by Google Analytics to provide us with information about how the Sites are used.

Information You Provide

If you choose to provide us with additional information through an email message, form, survey, or other written means, we will never provide your personally identifying information to a third party without your knowledge and consent. We may use this submitted information to contact you for more information, to request your consent to use your name in order to improve our services and Sites, to provide testimonials about our work or to ask if you will allow future communication from us. If you provide questions, information, feedback and/or other comments to us in an email or in other electronic form, we may disclose non-identifying information that you provide in the form of a testimonial, for technical troubleshooting, or other internal and external purposes to improve our services and report on usage of the Sites without your consent, but in all such cases, it would be anonymous and would not include any personally identifying information about you unless you have provided consent to use your name.

You may also provide us with information that identifies you if you participate on our Allen Brain Observatory Community Page hosted by Discourse, which is an open source platform for hosting Internet discussion forums. To sign up for a forum account, you will be required to provide your name, a user name, and an e-mail address. You have the option to provide a short biography, your location, birthday, and other personalized data to fill in your Discourse account profile. We collect any optional information you provide within your Discourse account, along with your account activity. We use your account data to identify you on the forum, to provide you with Community pages, and to better serve you through our website. When you post to the forum, Discourse will publish your username, name, avatar, and bio you provide, because our Community board is a public forum. To learn more about Discourse's privacy practices, please visit their privacy policy here.